More than 50 people attended a breakfast event hosted by Glenorchy City Council today designed to assist businesses with antisocial behaviour and crime.
Glenorchy Mayor Sue Hickey said she thanked the businesses who attended to gain valuable information about what they needed to do in situations where they were forced to deal with antisocial or criminal behaviour.
“Unfortunately, our community does experience crime and antisocial behaviour, and much of this occurs in our CBD areas.
“We are already working with Tasmania Police and the State Government to deal directly with this issue and help make Glenorchy a welcoming and safe community.
“But we know that empowering businesses with information and practical skills to assist in de-escalating situations and assisting authorities with information to aid investigations is also important.”
Mayor Hickey said businesses were given presentations on their legal rights as well as security measures they should be implementing to keep their business and staff as safe as possible.
“Businesses also took the opportunity to tell of their experiences. We know we have issues like many other communities, but we are determined to do what we can to tackle them and support our community at every opportunity.”
Mayor Hickey said she had already met with Premier Jeremy Rockliff and looks forward to further engagement with the State Government as Council’s planned events into stamping out crime and antisocial behaviour gathered more information.
Council will hold a public safety meeting on 11 September to hear from and provide information to the broader community ahead of a round-table event bringing together relevant government departments and other stakeholders to help identify additional strategies.
“We are taking this issue extremely seriously. We want people to be able to feel safe when they are going about their business in our community. Anything less than that is simply not right nor acceptable,” she said.